Nonprofits have had to be very creative to weather the economic storm, as increased demand has corresponded with a decrease in donations.

In the first part of this two part series, KALW looks at how well United Way partner, the San Francisco Food Bank, has fared. One of the things the Food Bank has done is to increase their partnerships with other nonprofits to help them get more food out this year than ever before. The partnerships have included everything from extending their distribution network  by establishing neighborhood pantries, to working with TechSoup on refreshing their website.

Listen to the report today.

photo via sterlingjohnson via flickr

In case you missed them, here are some of the stories we found interesting this week.

Fairfield homeless shelter has open house Thursday

Times Herald

After more than a decade of planning and fundraising, construction is complete on the $11.2 million Bridge to Life Center, a homeless shelter at 310 Beck Ave..

The public is invited to a dedication of the center from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday.

St. Anthony vs. Citigroup: charity wants its $2 million back

SF Chronicle

More members of middle class file for bankruptcy

USA Today

Foreclosures hitting more people with prime loans

SJ Mercury News

Share the Spirit: Volunteer Hayward is Secret Santa to the needy

Inside Bay Area

Janet Lamkin visits business owner Teena Johnson, a graduate of the Women’s Initiative, a United Way grantee

Following her successful term as vice-chair during the 2008/9 fundraising year, Janet Lamkin, president of Bank of America California, takes the helm as chair of United Way’s 2009/10 Bay Area fundraising campaign.

“This is a critical time for the nonprofit organizations that United Way supports,” Janet says. “Contributions are down at precisely the time when the need for vital services is at an all time high. No organization is better equipped than United Way to meet this challenge and ensure the continued vitality and sustainability of our communities.”

Janet is working with United Way to create brighter futures for Bay Area families. United Way creates pathways to prosperity, promoting long-term recovery and self-sufficiency for people in need in our community. People like Teena Johnson and her family.

A graduate of the Women’s Initiative, mother of-three Teena Johnson went from a frustrated, food-services worker to a proud owner of a successful lunch counter in downtown Oakland, “Catered to You.” Not only did the program offer her the business training she needed, but it also provided a positive environment,and support

The Women’s Initiative is one of several partners in United Way’s SparkPoint Oakland Center. SparkPoint brings together nonprofit organizations that promote financial stability and
business ownership for low-income individuals and their families.

Teena is now living her dream of running and growing a business, while also giving back to the community. Last year, she distributed Christmas dinners to 148 families in need, partnering with neighboring businesses to prepare food, solicit financial donations and organize volunteers. She hopes to expand the program to feed more families this year.

For Janet Lamkin, as it is for all of us at United Way, stories like Teena’s are the reason why we love what we do, and why, especially in these trying economic times, we are motivated to push harder and reach higher in our fundraising goals.

The 19th annual Week of Caring was a tremendous success, and now that we’ve had time to catch our breath, we’d like to update everyone with the numbers. More than 8,000 employees from all across the Bay Area took place in what is the largest corporate volunteer event in the country. In all more than sixty companies took place and completed almost 200 projects at local nonprofits. And nonprofits couldn’t be more appreciative of the effort. Without this event many projects wouldn’t be done or would be a much bigger hardship.

One example of this is Opportunity Junction, a Contra Costa County organization which needed new desks for its computer lab. They submitted the request to us and through Week of Caring a team of employees from Chevron Marketing Solutions responded and got to work. They were able to finish the job and even added an extra task two, as the team leader rounded up friends and family to complete the task over the weekend.

This year, Wells Fargo & Co. had the most volunteers this year with almost 3,300 people doing everything from serving meals at Glide, packing and prepping food at the local food bank, working senior at On Lok to even helping out young people at Larkin Street Youth Services. Thanks to them, and to all of our volunteers who gave us a bit of themselves. Along the way, a lot of lives were touched and the volunteers had a great time, but the nonprofits were even more thankful.

Hope to see you out there in the community next year when we celebrate 20 years of making it fun and easy for the Bay Area to LIVE UNITED!

See photos from this year’s event – maybe even see yourself here.

By the Numbers:

• 8,000+ Volunteers
• 700+ projects
• 150 nonprofits helped
• 60+ Companies
• 7 Days

This year, United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! saw another increase in the amount of money it returned to the community. This year, more than $47 million dollars was returned to hard-working people across seven Bay Area counties. The program, which is in its seventh year, provides free tax assistance for low- to moderate-income families and individuals, helping them avoid commercial tax preparation fees and claim tax credits, such as the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

With the tax season behind us, we at United Way offer our sincerest gratitude for the hard work and commitment of our volunteers, partners and funders. Your collective energy helped thousands of Bay Area residents get the refunds they deserve.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Co-Director Vanessa Muniz spoke with us about the program’s success, especially in deterring filers from costly “rapid refund” loans.

United Way: What accounts for the $11.4 million increase in total refunds?

Vanessa: This year we did a much better job of reaching our target population – households earning less than $45,000 a year. As a result, we had a large increase in filers who qualified for federal tax credits, which led to the increase of total refunds.

The economic downturn also played a huge role:  people just couldn’t afford to go to paid preparers, so clients were looking for cheaper alternatives.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, I think the reputation of the program  is spreading around Bay Area communities, which is a great thing!  Unfortunately, our program only is servicing about 3-5% of all eligible tax filers in the Bay Area.  Most still use paid preparers, and a large percentage of those tax filers are taking out high-cost, predatory loans called “Refund Anticipation Loans” or “Rapid Refunds.”

United Way: What is the problem with Rapid Refunds?

Vanessa: Rapid Refunds or Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) are heavily promoted by many commercial tax preparers as a way to get your tax refund quickly. However, they really are just high-priced loans. What tax-preparation companies don’t tell their customers – except in the fine print – is that the loans can cost as much as one third of their total refund in interest and fees. Worse yet, they can force a borrower into greater debt by over-estimating a family’s refund, so that they owe the tax preparation companies a large chunk of money.  Unfortunately, victims of the fast-refund pitch are often the poorest taxpayers.  In fact, more than 26% of all tax filers from San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood used RALs in 2007.

United Way: How has Earn It! Keep It! Save It! been able to combat them?

Vanessa: People trust us since we’ve been active in their local communities for seven years now, and we have a huge coalition of partners which includes nonprofits, local government, local churches, and the IRS. They’ve done a good job with outreach to the community, and educating taxpayers about hidden costs of that quick money.

Also, since many of our free-tax sites offer extra services like financial education classes or credit repair, we’re actually providing a lot of extra value.  Therefore, people really believe us when we say that you can get your whole tax refund back quickly with no fees of any sort. Also, by opening sites in late January, we’re able to help people who need their refunds in a hurry.

United Way: What were other notable aspects of this year’s tax season?

Vanessa: The average income of our tax fliers was a little bit higher. This is probably because more people were losing jobs toward the end of the 2008 and into 2009. And they were no longer able to pay to have their taxes prepared.

We also saw the fallout from the surge in foreclosures. Our tax-site coordinators requested and received special IRS training so they could better help families handle the tax issues raised by foreclosures.

United Way: Which county really stands out this year?

Vanessa: Alameda did a fabulous job. They had an almost 20% increase in the number of tax filers assisted – more than any other county! The partners there are very committed to Earn It! Keep It! $ave It! They do year-round outreach and advertising and have built up many trusted word-of-mouth referrals. In addition, the City of Oakland placed billboards in key neighborhoods.

View County by County Results
Alameda
Contra Costa
Marin
Napa
San Francisco
San Mateo
Solano